I don't think it's possible. Oh, the idea of locking overheads might help the problem somewhat - at great monetary cost - but even if you lock the overheads, there is still plenty of carry-on crap under the seats, in seatback pockets, etc. that people will grab and go.
I hate to admit it, but the truth is that in an emergency, I'd probably panic and grab some of my stuff as I moved for the exit. Not the overhead, but stuff I have with me in my seat, like my seatback organizer and water bottle. Afterward, I'd realize what a stupid move it was, but in the heat of the moment, I'd go on instinct, which is to keep my most important stuff with me at all times.
This thread has made me re-evaluate some things about how I travel, though, and I think I'll be changing the arrangement of my stuff when I next fly, to keep some of those things on my person instead of in a bag.
Originally Posted by
Randyk47
On the whole I would agree. Having gone through 9/11 at the Pentagon I'm sure the various drills we'd gone through over the years certainly helped facilitate a relatively calm evacuation. At least in my part of the building, about 700 feet from the impact, there was no obvious or wide spread panic. We had light smoke in the hallways but no fire, collapsed walls, etc., so people pretty calmly and quietly walked to the nearest exits. To the best of my knowledge only a few people of the 25,000 people in the building not in the immediate impact area were injured in that process. Did the evacuation go exactly to plans? No, not really but close. Did it point up shortfalls in the plans? Absolutely though none that actually spoke to or caused loss of life or limb. One of the biggest shortfalls was that we had no rally point and no plan or method to take a roll call. That led to hours and actually days of not being able to account for all personnel and a lot of angst at the management level. Should say I'm speaking to the larger procedural evacuation plan. There were other shortfalls identified that were structural or facility related like lack of pathway lighting/signage, redundant alarm systems, redundant fire suppression, etc., that were eventually incorporated in the rebuild and subsequent renovations.
The one thing that did happen was that there were a few people who left all their personal belongings at their desks. In my group of about 200 we had five or six that left their purses or wallets in locked desk drawers or in their jackets hanging in their cubicles. Of those two of three had a heck of a time getting home as they had no car keys, no money, no Metro passes, and no ID. Obviously different than a plane but one of the new instructions, at least initially after 9/11, was to make sure you took at least your basic belongings with you in case of evacuation. Of course that doesn't mean all the pictures of the family, awards and decorations hanging on the wall, etc.
Rally points and roll calls get harder and harder as your building gets bigger and your roster expands. I used to be the fire warden for a building that was probably equal to one segment of one ring of the Pentagon. My company had about 300 people in the building. I broke us up into smaller groups with multiple rally points, but the biggest problem was when someone was working in a part of the building far away from their normal work area and exited on the other side - they'd have to travel a fair distance to get to their rally point, all the while maintaining distance from the building (in case it was burning or collapsing) and staying safely out of roads, and out of the path of emergency personnel.
And even when everyone got to their rally points, communication was tough, because we had no radios, and I didn't want to rely on phones, which might be left at the desk or have dead batteries, so I had to set up visual signals that daisy-chained around the building from rally point to rally point until they got to me and I could report everyone accounted for or that we had missing.
In a building the size of the Pentagon, even with the greater resources, military discipline, training, and frequent drills, I can't see such things ever being practically implemented.